This story is from October 16, 2017

Get ready for pollution spike, Kolkata may get as bad as Delhi

Get ready for pollution spike, Kolkata may get as bad as Delhi
KOLKATA: If Delhi is the worst polluted city in India on Diwali night, Kolkata is not far behind. The pollution level in Kolkata, which remains within the limit most of the time of the year, spikes during Diwali night and almost catches up Delhi's pollution levels.
With reports of huge stockpile of banned firecrackers in the city , environmentalists fear the ambient air quality of Kolkata will worsen like previous years this Diwali.
For instance, Golpark in south Kolkata, according to a Central Pollution Control Board (CPCB) study , emerged the noisiest localities in India on Diwali night in 2016.
The city has far stringent decibel norms for fireworks compared to that in rest of the nation. Kolkata's permissible decibel level of fireworks is 90dB, while the same is 125dB for the rest of the country. But that has not deterred people to smuggle in banned fireworks in spite of police vigils at the key entry-exit points of the city. “It is humanly impossible to stop smuggling of the banned fireworks. People bring them by buses, trams and cabs. It is not possible to check every vehicle,“ said Gouranga Sarkar, an anti-noise campaigner.
Sarkar said that banned fireworks entered the city from south India as well as from Nungi and Champahati in South 24 Parganas, two key hubs of fireworks manufacturing in Bengal. None of the manufacturers in Nungi and Champahati has required clearances and valid licences.
Interestingly, they also manufacture banned fireworks which they claim are sent outside Bengal. But, a bulk of it actually enters the city, said another anti-noise campaigner. “Police make some routi ne arrests and lock the entrances to terrace of some high-rises, where people regularly indulge in bursting banned fireworks. Pollution control board also carries out some raids besides recording the noise and pollution levels of the city . But it requires much more concerted effort from all the agencies concerned and it must be a year-long campaign,“ said
Somendra Mohan Ghosh, an environmentalist.
“The decibel restriction exists only on paper. That's why Golpark last year emerged as the noisiest locality in India. While the permissible noise level in the residential area is 55dB, on Diwali night it exceeded far beyond to 81dB.This can be compared to some of the noisiest areas of Delhi like Mayurvihar or Lajpatnagar,“ a CPCB official said.
Times View
A ir pollution has emerged as big a menace as noise pollution over the years. It may be difficult to seal an entire city but every effort should be made to keep banned crackers out.
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